Mrs. Merriwether's Musical Cat

Mrs. Merriwether takes in a stray cat that proves to have an amazing effect on her piano students

Kindergarten-Grade 3-The rhythmic twitching of a cat's tail is the purr-fect foil for this charming, syncopated tale. Mrs. Merriwether lives an ordinary life in an ordinary town teaching three pupils piano lessons on Tuesday afternoons. Morton Highbrow mangles Mozart and butchers Bach, Florence Danube's favorite waltzes lack the proper beat, and Rhonda Rockwell has energy but no talent for bopping out the "Top Forty." When a stray cat leaps onto Mrs. Merriwether's piano and begins waving its tail in time to the music, the three students are transformed into virtuosos, Mrs. Merriwether has a new friend and new vitality, and Peach Tree Lane is no longer ordinary. When the cat, appropriately named Beethoven, suddenly disappears, a metronome proves to be no substitute and Tuesdays become worse than boring. When the cat returns with an ensemble of kittens, the glorious music and euphoria resumes. Children will not foresee the ending due to the orchestration of the story's pacing, the surprise element, and clever touches of visual and verbal detail. Mathers's colorful paintings are just jazzy and offbeat enough to create a tempo that's whimsical and upbeat. Text and pictures play in harmonious concert here.
Julie Cummins, New York Public Library
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.